East Girls' Tennis Survives Injury Scare, Gets Past Lenape in States

Things looked to be going smoothly for the Cherry Hill East girls’ tennis team against Lenape Wednesday.

After weather delays pushed the South Jersey, Group 4 sectional quarterfinal back a day, the Cougars were cruising, with a chance to clinch the match with either a win at first singles, where Allyson Wolf was up a set and in control, or at first doubles, where Tyler Haaz and Paige Leone were battling through a three-setter.

Then Haaz pulled up with an apparent knee injury.

Suddenly, things looked a lot closer.

While they waited for a trainer to arrive, coach Mary Jewett had to consider conceding that point and relying on Wolf to carry the team, rather than risk sending Haaz back out.

“I was ready to pull her from the court,” Jewett said. “I don’t want any injuries to a player—it’s more important for her to have good knees the rest of her life than win a state tournament.”

It never came to that, though—after getting her leg checked out, Haaz was diagnosed with a quad strain, not enough to keep her off the court, and not enough to keep she and Leone from pulling out the three-set victory, 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, in what ended up being a dominant day for the Cougars.

With a shakeup at doubles—Haaz and Leone flipped to first doubles, after having played second against Lenape in the first go-round—and a slight shift in tactics, the Cougars ended up with a 4-1 win and a trip to the semifinals.

Having seen Lenape once already this season, it was simply a matter of adapting to their opponents, Wolf said.

“Sometimes you have to have change your focus,” she said. “Last time I hit more aggressive, and this time I had to be more defensive.”

Lenape’s Kesha Bauer, Wolf’s opponent, spent the match firing powerful ground strokes back across the net, challenging Wolf with shots all over the court. But Wolf had an answer nearly every time, and extended the match with long rallies that seemed to wear Bauer down, especially in the second set.

“You have to be consistent with her,” Wolf said. “She’s a really good opponent…she hit a lot of corner balls I couldn’t get to.”

It was with that consistency Wolf was able to finish off Bauer, 6-4, 6-2, clinching the match before Haaz even returned from her injury.

That same consistency was visible up and down the Cougars’ lineup—Nikita Shukla was nearly perfect in her second set, knocking off Melissa Olt, 6-4, 6-0, and the doubles team of Adele Boyarski and Lauren Romisher had little trouble with their opponents, winning 6-3, 6-3.

Lenape’s Lauren Gershman was the only one who was able to ding the Cougars, taking the first point of the match by beating East’s Amanda Elfman, 6-1, 7-5, but it was all East after that.

The Cougars won’t get any break after the win—they’re right back in action in the state tournament Thursday, hosting No. 4 Egg Harbor Township in a semifinal match, with the winner to face either Toms River North or Cherokee in the South Jersey, Group 4 final Monday.

Jewett said she welcomed the back-to-back matches, though it’s unclear whether Haaz will be ready to go, given the potential for the muscle strain to affect her play.

With enough rest and ice, it’s not out of the question, but Jewett wasn’t going to commit to anything before seeing how Haaz recovers.

“We’ll see what happens,” she said.